SONG OF THE SEA

Ireland, 2014, 93 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Brendan Gleeson, Fionnula Flanagan, David Rawle, Lisa Hannigan, Lucy O'Connell, Jon Kenny, Pat Shortt.
Directed by Tomm Moore.

This is an Irish story, Irish mythology, but a combination of film-makers from Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, France. And there are three different language versions, Irish, English, French. The voice cast is led by veterans Brendan Gleeson and Fionnula Flanagan.

The animation is vivid for characters and backgrounds, reminiscent of many of the animated films from Japan. And there is a range of songs in the musical score

The story opens on an island and at the lighthouse, the father with his wife, pregnant, and the young son. As she gives birth, the wife returns to the sea – she is a Selkie, leaving the newly born daughter with the family.

Years pass. The father is distraught, the young boy resenting his sister. Then grandmother then takes them to the city.

The grandmother tells a range of stories, drawing on the mythology of the Sea, of the Selkies and the sea, of the relationship with the humans, also telling stories of a mysterious island and its ruler, the powers of magic, fairies, owls, their being transformed to stone, a quest and their liberation.

Ultimately, the mother reveals herself as a Selkie, the daughter, Saoirse, having to make a decision as to a life as human or as a Seikie.

1. A European production? Animation? Music?

2. An Irish story? Folklore? Humans, Selkies, mythological creatures, fairies, mysterious islands? Life in the sea?

3. The strong Irish cast for the English and Irish-language version?

4. The musical score, the range of songs?

5. The style of animation, links to Japanese animation stories? The characters, action, colourful backgrounds, homes, within the sea, the city streets, bus rides? The human characters? The mythical characters? The grandmother and her equivalent? Bronagh and the Selkies?

6. The setting of the story, the island and the on, Connor, love for Bronagh, for Ben, his wife going back to the sea, her pregnancy, the child, Saoirse? Conor and his grief?

7. The passing of the years, Conor isolated, the little girl, Ben and his resentment, the issue of the coat, in the box and in the sea? Grandmother coming, taking them to the city?

8. Life in the city, the bus ride? The contrast with the island?

9. The grandmother, the telling of the stories, her visual equivalent, the fairies, the owls, their role, turning to stone? The range of stories, the mythology, the island?

10. The return to the island, the explorations and the sea, Ben, Saoirse and her coat, the discovery of who she was, part-human, part-Selkie? The family accepting this?

11. In the sea, discovering Bronagh, her situation, Conor and his sadness, Ben and the coat, the effect for Saoirse?

12. Saoirse, her choices, the possibilities, the remaining as a human?

13. These traditions and stories in the Irish consciousness?